PC Backup programs.

Ken C.

Ken C.

Jack of all trades, master of none.
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I hate using XP's back up system. I had a system failure earlier in the month and I lost some stuff despite backing it up. What would any of you recommend for automatic PC backup programs? Paid or free is fine.
 
Ken, are you backing up data only? I back up to a usb 2 gig flash drive for data files only. I have the original program disks. On most of the programs I use, I can set the program to back up to the flash drive when I exit the program, example MS Money. I am an old DOS guy so you know how old I am, but I write some batch files in the command prompt and back up any files I want to the flash drive just by hitting a shortcut on desktop. Hard to explain, but fairly easy to do if you know the locations of data and the file extensions you want to save.
Perhaps some of the younger and more tech guys can point us to an easier way.
Jim
 
Not a full-fledged backup program, so it may not be what you are looking for, but this works well for me. It's part of Windows Vista but will work on XP.

MS SyncToy program.

Check it out. This link is for 2.0. I use 1.4 successfully.

Coop
 
Ken C. said:
I hate using XP's back up system. I had a system failure earlier in the month and I lost some stuff despite backing it up. What would any of you recommend for automatic PC backup programs? Paid or free is fine.
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Ken,

What are you backing up to? Another hard drive, USB, DVD or even a separate computer? What data are you backing up? Does the data change frequently or is it important enough to warrant real-time back up or can it be a daily or weekly event?
 
I have a 160GB Western Digital My Book external hard drive that I want to automatically back up pics, music, and important files too.
 
I do not want to backup my data anywhere on someone else's servers online. Too much risk involved. I back up my files manually once a week. I need a program that will automatically back up the files I choose on a daily basis.

What program will do this for me? Cost is not a concern.
 
About the best backup system I've seen is a second, removable hard drive and Drive Image. Drive Image copies your main disk to the removable. It's a complete image of everything.

If you're hard drive dies completely, just get a new one, install your removable, and use Drive Image to copy the removable to the main and you are literally right where you left off, all drivers are install, all software is installed, every setting is exactly where you left it, even your desktop icons are right where you left them; it's a prefect system restore.

If you're gonna install some new software, just make an Image of your system on your removable drive first and if something goes horribly wrong and the new stuff trashes your system, you can restore everything exactly the way it was.

In an evacuation emergency, a removable hard drive fits in your coat pocket.

And the cost of hard drives has fallen to much today that it's really not very expensive.
 
Ken C. said:
I do not want to backup my data anywhere on someone else's servers online. Too much risk involved. I back up my files manually once a week. I need a program that will automatically back up the files I choose on a daily basis.

What program will do this for me? Cost is not a concern.
Click to expand...

Ken. Is there any reason why you would not want the data to synchronize real-time as opposed to once a week? Do you leave your My Book connected to your computer all the time? If so, I would recommend either of these two products I've used them both and feel comfortable with either.

The first is Memeo Autobackup. This is my go-to program for simple yet reliable backups. It will handle pretty much anything and setup and configuration for multiple locations or devices is a piece of cake.

http://www.memeo.com/ $29.95

The second is ViceVersa. I really can't say anything bad about this program. I'm sure you'd be satisfied with this program and it would do anything you asked of it.

http://www.tgrmn.com/ $59.95

Both offer 30 day fully functional trial periods so I would suggest test driving both.
 
Acronis or Norton Ghost. With ever greater restrictions on software installations you want a backup system that copies your whole disk down to the MBR. Then you do a system restore rather than a reinstall. None of the software has to be reactivated and it doesn't count against limited activations like Microsoft is going to on its software now.

For example, one of my older computers is now the kids computer. They got it infected with something they downloaded and locked it up. That XP license is old and has been reinstalled on that box a number of times. The last time I installed it, I had to call India to get it activated as Microsoft wouldn't do it over the Internet anymore.

But with a recent complete backup it was trivial to set up the restore and let it do it's thing unattended. No activations, minimal aggravation.
 
+1 for MS SyncToy. It's free, it can be set to a schedule. It really helps if you've consolidated your data to one or just a few folders.

I've paid for backup programs in the past, and used drive imagers as well. As long as you're not needing revision level backups (saving the small changes so that you may revert to an older copy), MS SyncToy works beautifully. The minuses of drive imaging programs (in my opinion!) are the drive space needed and the fact that since you're saving everything, if you need to restore data only, prepare to work!

PS. I am a computer engineer by degree, worked as a computer consultant for a long time...
 
the trouble is said:
Acronis True Image
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I'll second Acronis. I've used it for about a year now, and I couldn't be happier. I think it's the best backup program on the market today. The only downside I can see is that its interface is a little awkward. I'd give it a try if I were you.
 
Mike G said:
I'm using the backup utility in my Windows Live Onecare.

Works great.
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I have read that that backup utility really becomes outstanding when you have a Windows Home Server (WHS) running on your home network. But I don't have Live Onecare or a WHS box either, so I haven't tried it out. I've been tempted to convert my linux server box to a WHS box, but it's so stable and has run without tweaking so well for so long, I'll probably have to acquire another test box for WHS.
 
coolcrow said:
I'll second Acronis. I've used it for about a year now, and I couldn't be happier. I think it's the best backup program on the market today. The only downside I can see is that its interface is a little awkward. I'd give it a try if I were you.
Click to expand...

I am neither newbie nor expert with computers, so I purchased a 250gb Seagate hard drive for about $100, and used the Acronis True image program.

It was VERY easy to do, and it backs up my entire computer...though, I still burn all of our pictures to CD, just in case.
There are other ways to back up, but they require more wisdom than I possess. The True Image program makes it a breeze.
 
Gentlemen,

Thank you all for your advice and expertise. I will try all of the programs suggested and find the one that will work well for my needs. I will let you know what I choose.

Again, thank you. :D :thumbup:
 
Gollnick said:
About the best backup system I've seen is a second, removable hard drive and Drive Image. Drive Image copies your main disk to the removable. It's a complete image of everything.

If you're hard drive dies completely, just get a new one, install your removable, and use Drive Image to copy the removable to the main and you are literally right where you left off, all drivers are install, all software is installed, every setting is exactly where you left it, even your desktop icons are right where you left them; it's a prefect system restore.

If you're gonna install some new software, just make an Image of your system on your removable drive first and if something goes horribly wrong and the new stuff trashes your system, you can restore everything exactly the way it was.

In an evacuation emergency, a removable hard drive fits in your coat pocket.

And the cost of hard drives has fallen to much today that it's really not very expensive.
Click to expand...

Chuck,

Have you ever had to use this utility and if so how did it work out for you? Can you schedule automatic backups with it? Also, is this the product offered by rtt (r-tools technology)?
 
If you've gone down the intelligent road of backing up, you might as well go all the way. While backing up to a local device is step one, you really should backup to a remote device as step 2. Why? What happens if you have a fire? Or a flood? Or someone steals all of your computer related stuff (read: easy to resell)? Those pictures or documents that are either irreplaceable or very hard to replace are suddenly gone for good.

I'd say you have three decent options:

1. Online backup. There are plenty of sites out there that will give you up to 5gb for free. The nice advantage of this is that you can access your files anywhere you have internet access.

2. Burn to disk or copy to an external drive. Both of these methods allow you to make backups and keep them elsewhere, like in a safe deposit box or someone else's house.

3. Sync with a friend or relative's computer. The chance of the two of your computers going down at the same time is very slim. And if you're worried about privacy, encryption is fairly easy.
 
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